town.  A large amount of business is done, and the profits are very considerable.  These are divided amongst the members, in proportion to the purchases made by them.  The profits are for the most part re-invested in joint-stock paper-mills, cotton-mills, and collieries, in the neighbourhood of Darwen.  One of the most praiseworthy features of the society is the provision made for the free education of the members and their families.  Two and a half per cent. of the profits are appropriated for the purpose.  While inspecting the institution a few months ago, we were informed that the Science classes were so efficiently conducted, that one of the pupils had just obtained a Government Scholarship of fifty pounds a year, for three years, including free instruction at the School of Mines, Jermyn Street, London, with a free use of the laboratories during that period.  There are also two other co-operative institutions in the same place; and we were informed that the working people of Darwen are, for the most part, hard-working, sober, and thrifty.

The example has also spread into Scotland and the south of England.  At Northampton, a co-operative society exists for the purpose of buying and selling leather, and also for the manufacture of boots and shoes.  At Padiham and other places in Lancashire, co-operative cotton-mills have been established.  The Manchester and Salford Equitable Co-operative Society “combine the securities and facilities of a bank with the profits of a trade.”  But the business by which they mostly thrive, is by the purchase and sale of food, provisions, groceries, draperies, and other articles, with the exception of intoxicating liquors.

The sole secret of their success consists in “ready money.”  They give no credit.  Everything is done for cash; the profit of the trade being divided amongst the members.  Every business man knows that cash payment is the soundest method of conducting business.  The Rochdale Pioneers having discovered the secret, have spread it amongst their class.  In their “advice to members of this and other societies,” they say:  “Look well after money matters.  Buy your goods as much as possible in the first markets; or if you have the produce of your industry to sell, contrive, if possible, to sell it in the last.  Never depart from the principle of buying and selling for ready money.  Beware of long reckonings.”  In short, the co-operative societies became tradesmen on a large scale; and, besides the pureness of the food sold, their profit consisted in the discount for cash payments, which was divided amongst the members.